In Fearful Day
by Ecksdeee
Summary: Following the Guardian's betrayal of Odym's location to Agent Orange, the blue planet has gone missing from the heavens. All that's seemingly left of the absent Corps is a single blue ring which is hellbent on making the last Blue Lantern an earthling.


"Watch tower to Green Lantern. Are you up yet, John?" Dinah Lance asked, voice coming across the comm. clearly despite the almost planetary distances involved.

High above the Northern hemisphere, Kyle Rayner triggered his own earpiece in response. "Canary, it's me. Stewart and I are switching duties for a few weeks so he can do his own investigation into the Star Sapphire's."

There was a silence that could only be reproachful.

"I meant to tell the League. I was going to do it today." He added.

"Uh-huh. If I didn't have a reason to call, I bet I wouldn't have heard anything 'til the middle of the battle when I'd want some construct helpers to evacuate a burning building and got some science fiction looking kangaroo firemen instead."

"Nobody gets me." Kyle said with a joking pout.

"As long as you're in the neighborhood, I'm calling about something we picked up on scanners. It's coming in past the moon and, well, you really need to see it for yourself. Canary, out."

Alone with his thoughts, Kyle sheathed himself in the traditional green aura even as he shot out of Earth's upper atmosphere where he'd simply been adrift, staring down at the planet beneath. As he passed the watch tower he waved idly, just in case Canary was watching.

As a Green Lantern, distances through space were a lot less cumbersome. What might take NASA a week took Kyle about a minute as he approached the far side of the moon, and that was at a leisurely pace. He absentmindedly ringed a pair of green-tinted sunglasses on his face to take care of some of the reflecting glare.

"Ring; scan for space-based anomalies." Kyle ordered, even as he slid his eyes across the space scape.

_Anomaly found. Energy signature registers as a power ring._

"What?" Kyle said, shocked. If a power ring was here without a person in the saddle, which meant it was shopping for new blood. Probably on Earth. Could that mean one of the guys had--? His heart skipped a beat with worry.

_A power ring is a construct designed to employ the wearer's—_

"I know what a power ring is; I'm talking at one, aren't I?" Kyle snapped, the ring apparently taking his exclamation as a legitimate question.

Finally, he saw a sparkle. As he let out a sigh of relief, Kyle watched as a blue ring danced back and forth across his field of vision. It event shot around him a few times, playfully dodging his half-hearted attempt at grabbing it. Though he'd yet to encounter any of them in person, he'd been fully briefed on the Blue Lantern Corps.

His opinion without meeting any in person? They didn't seem like a half-bad bunch.

"Hey, little guy. Going my way?" Kyle asked, amused by its antics. It made no attempt to coerce him into the Blue Lantern Corps, however.

_Incoming threat detected._

"What are you talking about? Thing seems harmless to me."

_Threat registered as Dytnax, Sinestro Corps member of space sector 2020._

"Say what?!" Kyle exclaimed, just as a force beam slammed into his protective aura. It knocked him back a good mile before he sequestered his will and arrested his flight. Rocketing up from the moon was the Sinestro Corps member.

"You've got a lot of nerve coming back here after the spanking Sinestro got last time." Kyle shouted. Even as he did, he noticed that the multi-limbed alien seemed hurt. He must have been hanging around here ever since the rest of his got Corps got whooped, Kyle realized suddenly.

Kyle ringed a long, malleable construct into existence that thoroughly whipped about Dytnax before constricting tightly, even as it muffled the alien's cursing. He couldn't help but laugh at the sight of what appeared to be the equivalent of a four year old's mummy Halloween costume. It quickly became apparent Dytnax was going nowhere.

"Got left behind in the rush when your yellow-bellied Corps turned tail. Get it? Yellow-bellied. They love that kind of stuff here on Earth." Kyle looked past him, to the moon. "Been hiding out up here, huh? Not enough power to get anywhere else in space, and you knew what would happen if you set foot on my planet." Kyle twirled a finger, causing the emerald bandages to unwind quickly, sending Dytnax spinning. He hadn't known the Sinestro rings needed a certain amount of charge to return the wearer to the anti-matter dimension.

"Impertinent annoyance." He growled, Kyle's ring taking care of the translating. Not that it needed to bother, the facial expressions alone conveyed everything.

"True. But I'm the only way you're getting out of this space sector alive. There's a nice warm Sciencell with your name on it back on Oa."

"Long live the Corps, long live Sin-!" Dytnax started to monologue, so Kyle fashioned a quick gag of energy, before surrounding the alien in a bubble.

"Enjoy Oa. It's nice this time of year. Ring, prepare for prisoner transport."

_Prisoner transport engaged._

Even as the bubble shot off, and Dytnax's struggling form grew distant, Kyle looked around, before slapping a hand to his head. He'd forgotten in the confusion. The alien, desperate, must have come out of hiding when he thought he saw a way off planet.

The blue ring.

Looking around wildly, Kyle just managed to find the sparkle again as it hit planet fall. He winced at the thought of contacting his fellow Earth-based Corps members. No doubt this wasn't going to go down happily for all of them.

"I just know somehow this is going to end up being my fault..."


End file.
